Formal Methods in Control

Formal methods in control is an interdisciplinary field of study that utilizes techniques from theoretical computer science to tackle complex control problems. Specifically, it is involved with providing rigorous guarantees on the properties of control systems, such as safety, reachability and more complex logic specifications such as linear temporal logic or omega-regular specifications.

This course is tailored to the analysis and design of control systems (or more generally, transition systems) against such complex specifications. The students will be familiarized with the different specifications that systems are usually required to satisfy, and how to formally model these specifications by utilizing some techniques borrowed from computer science, mainly languages and automata theory. Then, students will learn some state of art techniques for the verification and control of finite state systems and infinite state systems via model checking algorithms, fixed point computations, barrier functions, etc.

The course is intended for (master) students who are aware of the basics of control systems and simple behavioral properties such as stability. The course will be given in English.